The critics might have you believe that almost every company in
the market is partaking in what would be a massive buyout of
stocks.

Goldman Sachs' Stuart Kaiser offers some context.

"Over the past decade S&P 500 companies have completed gross
buybacks totaling 3% of market cap per year on average with 85%
of companies engaging in some amount of buyback," wrote Kaiser in
a new research note to clients. "That rate of buybacks is nearly
double the 1.5% annual pace during the previous ten years from
1994 – 2004. At the sector level the largest gross buybacks have
been in Information Technology, Industrials, Health Care, and
Consumer Discretionary companies."

Here's Kaiser's research charted.

Goldman Sachs

Keep in mind the chart above only communicates share volumes.
Because the S&P 500 rose 30% in 2013, corporations actually
increased the money spent on buybacks by a massive amount.